"No, of course not!" said Herta. "It ended long before I was born. But... it's part of my family heritage. I still probably benefit from the knowledge we learned, the pacts we made in that era. No one will tell me if that's true or not, though. But I'm still judged for it in many places."

Head Witch GM, 670 postsFri 9 Mar 2018at 02:10

msg #191

Combat Magic

"Yeah, but it's not like you did that stuff, so, I'm not sure why they'd hold it against you," Kimberly said.

"Because I'm a reminder, I think," said Herta. "I use the same magics; I'm bound by the same pacts, as well. The powers I use are the same. I didn't arrange for the slaughter of untold thousands to gain the pacts or the knowledge, but my grandparents did."

"Most of the time," said Herta. "If I found a place here, somehow. But I couldn't stay here forever. I have to return to the Shwartzwald, now and then. I don't really plan on having children, but I'll have to return there for their birth, and for several other ceremonies, as well."

"Oh, being in my home doesn't," said Herta. "No, I'm very fond of the Shwartzwald, and our home. What causes me pain is having outsiders drive home what my family did back before I was born, over and over again."

"...but I admit that a few incidents in Europe drove home how we're often regarded," sighed Herta. "It's not like the past is easy to forget. We still have the knowledge that we gained and the pacts we forged. Contrary to popular belief, though, human sacrifice isn't a condition of the pacts."

"No," said Herta. "...large-scale death made the Dives that let the Pacts be forged possible, but that was all. The bargains we make with the Deep Swimmers aren't for death. They have plenty of that. We bring them things they don't have-- things of life and birth."

"Sorry," she said. "I go technical very easily. Deaths in an area allow us to enter the Black Ocean, which is the Netherworld, the place the newly-dead go, and ghosts linger. The more deaths, though, the deeper into it you can go, and there are inhabitants deep inside it, Deep Swimmers, things that were never alive. They are alien, vast and powerful, and we can trade with them, or make pacts with them for power or knowledge. The deeper you go, the stronger they become, but it's harder to get to them, and more dangerous. Our ends of the pacts are providing them with things relating to birth or growth or fertility, since those things do not exist in their world."

"Well, if it helps, you don't have to deal with them," said Herta. "They can't come here, directly. It's not easy for us to go there. It's a world apart from yours, a mystery that you can ignore completely."